Dead, Broken & Alone
by akyl
Summary: The dead Yondaime. The broken Mage. And the lonely Pirate King. (Timeframe: During Gaara's rescue mission) Main: alive!Namikaze Minato, strong!Erza Scarlet, child!Monkey D. Luffy Lots of fluff with a certain Pirate Kid. [This is a NARUTO l ONE PIECE l FAIRYTAIL - universe]
1. Uno

_"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." - Namikaze Minato_

The pull that he's feeling right now is not something strange. He experienced it so many times while using _Hiraishin no Jutsu_. But the pit of his stomach says otherwise. He tried to take a lungful of air, but his heart felt like falling to his feet and the sensation of being pulled is still there. He tried to open his eyes but greeted by a warp of blinding light so he shut it again and desperately tried to catch air on his mouth until he could feel his lungs burn from the lack of oxygen and getting dizzy from his spinning visions of light.

When the pull finally stopped, the man knew he was lying on a cold, hard ground. He still has his eyes closed and feasting his lungs of cold air with a huff like he was running a mile and suffering from chakra exhaustion. He tried to feel the ground with his fingers and met by a smooth piece of paper. _'No, it's a scroll'_. He thought. And moved his fingers further and felt the dry soil. He tried to open his eyes again and this time, he was met by darkness. The man analyzed the surroundings and his situation. And like a river, his memories came flushing forward like an untamable water.

' _Kushina_.'

' _Kyuubi_.'

' _The_ _village_.'

' _ **NARUTO**_!'

He tried to shout the last memory, but it came out like a pathetic groan while he attempted to sit and leaned on his back. Nevertheless, he rolled up to his side and fought the nausea he was feeling to get up.

When he finally settled up and fix his gaze on the surroundings, it's not that dark anymore. There's a very dim light coming from the sole lamp in the room above an altar. _'Or am I in cave?'._ The man had never seen it, but he recognizes the place. No. It's the eerie feel in the air around him that seem familiar. When a whoosh of cold air came from the tunnel-like direction, he shivered and give a moment of thought of his condition.

He's on his birth suit with only a piece of white sheet that now covered his lower abdomen down to his toe. The urge to sputter curses died on his throat when he saw the scroll he was laying at. He recognized the large scroll for _Fūnyū no Jutsu_ that Konoha-nin uses for preserving dead bodies of ninjas who were killed in battle/action if they got the chance and not the drastic choice of burning it to preserve the knowledge of the dead body. Shinobi knew too many secrets that could be extracted if one dies just by using a proper jutsu. Even a good medical-nin could read history by assessing scars and battle wounds of a dead body. That's why it's either of the two that the survivor ninja could choose from if ever sit on a tight situation. Sealing is a choice too. But not many shinobi actually know strong _fūinjutsu_ that could barrier a complex seal to a dead body.

And now, the man _who-knew-that-he-came-from-the-dead_ question this situation. Because how on all elemental nation that his _supposed-to-be-dead-body_ , scratch that! The _Yondaime-Hokage-of-Hidden-Village-of-Leaf-supposed-to-be-corpse_ were in a mere scroll hiding in a cave?

He heaved a sigh and closed his eyes again to feel the area. _'So, I died, huh?'_ Came a thought after several minutes. He knew he was in the Namikaze Compound. His once home before it was destroyed by the Kyuubi. Maybe the Sandaime thought it was a good idea to preserve his body here. He tried to flare a his now recovered chakra and realized that the whole place was sealed inside and out it was almost impossible to get in without causing a commotion because that little life of chakra he activated in his body triggered a whole mess of sensor seal-traps inside the cave and a loud ringing that he bet could be heard all over the village.

With a little struggle, the now came from the dead _Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato_ walk towards the altar. Near it, on the left side, standing a glass-box were his possessions of clothing. From his blue shirt, pants, and sandals with his flak jacket and even the sealed kunais he used for _Flying Thunder God_ technique were displayed like someone is actually wearing it. _'They didn't even try to destroy or at least conceal it, huh? What was the Sandaime thinking? And Jiraiya-sensei?'_ He thought again.

The ringing is getting louder and louder, and Minato tried to quick his movements. Now, in front of the altar, hanging above is his most prized _haori_. The red-flame like motifs on the edges looked alive contrasting the dim lights of the cave. It held memories he'd rather forget but the look of love from his wife with that warm smile while she knitted the kanji for " **Yondaime Hokage** " on one of the corners of their home is the memory he would forever treasure.

The cloak feels soft and comfortable just like the first time. Even if the writings said otherwise, he didn't feel the weight of responsibilities until he wore the _hitae-ate_ on his head. He tried to feel his heart above his flak jacket with closed eyes.

' _Leaf, you've brought anguish and burden to me. But why? Why do I still feel the need to protect you?'_

He could continue questioning himself later and how is he still alive and how long has it been and where his precious son at? But now, the pooling presences outside the wall of the cave were getting nearer. He needs to be out.

* * *

 **Outskirts of the ruins of Uzushiogakure:**

Standing in a ruined ground of the shinobi village is a woman staring at the edges of the now battleground-like and destroyed place. She woke up in the middle of the forest and tried to search a town but found a demised village drowned in water which is out of life and living things. With her battle armor and sword in hand she screamed from the top of her lungs.

* * *

 **Somewhere on the boarders of Sunagak** **ure:**

Uchiha Itachi is not someone to lose on a fight quickly unless there's a miscalculation which could be count with just one hand and still rose from battle with victory way back when he still was a part of Konoha AN-BU team. Now, the person cloaked with his features who's fighting Kakashi and his team near one of the Akatsuki's hideout fall from their leader's _Shapeshifting Technique._ This technique allocates a certain amount of chakra from him to a living human sacrifice to become his identical copy with perfect imitations of his power like his _kekkei genkai_ , while he, Itachi, whose chakra had been used to complete the jutsu has the control over the imitation remotely, thus making its movement and knowledge indistinguishable as well. But the sacrifice is limited by how much of his chakra could be given, for at least 30%, so chakra-taxing jutsu cannot be used, particularly. And once he loses or runs out of chakra, the sacrifice reverts from their original form and _die_. Itachi is even sure that Kakashi didn't even realize that it was a _fake copy_ of him until he lose his focus and the Shapeshifting Technique ended while an 'Oomf' heard when something unexpectedly falls on his back.

Or _someone_.

And a _little_ one at that.

Itachi stared at the little thing which bounced quite a few distances away from the rocks where he and his companion, Hoshigaki Kisame, were sitting above.

"What the fuck, Itachi? And here I was starting to have fun with the man in green spandex!" Kisame growled.

"Don't include my name with the obscenities of your language Kisame." Replied Itachi with emotionless face but a serious warning with his voice. He never left staring at the little body that trying to stand up from the ground. Both were on guard when a little childish voice broke from the said body.

" _Itai!_ That hurts! Why did it hurt? I shouldn't be hurting! Damn it!"

The two-man team continue to watch the boy who's now running like a headless chicken. He's wearing a blue short and a red open cardigan with a yellow sash on his hip. They look foreign and not at the same time. Kisame took it up to himself to scare the boy when he kept on shouting with something about hat and meat.

"Oi, little shit!" Kisame called and release a small amount of killing intent directly at the boy which surprisingly answer it with his childish angry face.

"You! Ugly _green_ fish! Where is my hat?" The boy pointed accusingly at Kisame and the said man sputter profanities and held _Samehada_ on his hand ready to strike the little boy.

"Why you little piece of shit! What did you just say!? And I'm not green! I'm blue!" Kisame shout angrily.

"Oh, I didn't know that! Still, you're butt-ugly and smell like one too!" The boy shouted back with a pout and crossed arms showing his reluctance.

Itachi watched them as Kisame tried to strike the boy that looked six or five years old and said boy continuously avoided Kisame with an unfamiliar trick which includes growing limbs and inflated stomach. For some reason, Kisame couldn't catch the boy that still insulted him and shouting about his hat at the same time.

"Kisame," Itachi called calmly. Both man and boy looked to him. Itachi held up a tattered straw-hat that he found besides the rock he was sitting up. "Are you looking for this?"

"HAT!" The boy shouted and grew his arms longer and latched on Itachi like a rope then flew straight on his chest. "You saved it! Thank you!" The boy yelled with joyous and victorious grin which Itachi replied with a small smile unconsciously.

"Itachi! Give me that little fucker! Let Samehada eat him!" Kisame strode back. The boy clung to him tightly like a monkey when Kisame showed his sentient sword's mouth untangling the white bandages that covered it.

"NO! I'm not a meat! I don't taste good! _Shank's_ said I will smell bad when cooked because I'm a rubber you idiotic-green-butt-smelly-fish!" The boy that hide behind him looked on Kisame from his shoulder. "If you come near me, _I'll eat you!_ " He shouted with conviction.

"Why you-" Kisame's ferocity was cut off when a chuckle left hanging on the air coming from the most stoic man he'd ever known. Kisame stared at him wide eye while the boy still clung to him with a big grin.

"Ne, ne, who are you? Are you gonna eat that fish? Do you have meat? I need meat! Meat is the best thing in the world! _Makino's_ gonna give me lots of meat before _Ji-chan_ comes and trains me again! I don't like training but Ji-chan always bring lots of meat so it's an okay! But he always let me fight those monkeys! It doesn't hurt but Ji-chan's _Fist of Love_ is scary! Ne, ne, do you know my Ji-chan? Don't tell him I said it, okay!?" The unknown boy rumbled on. Kisame found it offending and Itachi doesn't feel a threat, so he decided to take it to himself and chat with him.

"You should tell your name first, boy, before you ask someone about it. And where did you come from?" Itachi asked. Voice laced with the common Uchiha stoicism that Kisame's now used of.

The boy moved his head on the side and stared at Itachi. He removed his latched limbs with a snap and stood before him placing his a little too big straw hat on his head and showed his big grin again and arms crossed above his chest. "I'm _Monkey D. Luffy_! The man who will become the _Pirate King!_ I don't know where we are, but I need to hide because Ji-chan's coming. He punched me really hard and I should be at Makino's bar, but I think Ji-chan's wrong this time. Nice to meet `ya!"

 _Little did the boy know, he'd become the Pirate King already and the toothy and sunny smile he's showing is contrast to a broken man he once was whose grief is deeper than the Fisherman's Island._


	2. Dos

_"Being alive...is a sign of strength!" -Erza Scarlet_

* * *

Amidst of all the fight that happening in the elemental nations, a woman in _Seishin no Koromo_ is now calmly walking in an unfamiliar forest. For some reason, she couldn't turn back on her common armor-clothing. She'd been walking aimlessly while calculating every possible scenario in her head. And the said head is continuously bleeding due to an injury she didn't quite remember where she got from. She doesn't remember anything except her name and a word _Acnologia_ that keeps popping up on her mind and instill a fear on her heart.

She'd been wondering for about three hours now and still didn't find a sign of life except the tweeting birds and wild animals. She saw an ocean earlier but there's no sign of life there too like the forest, so she took it upon herself that she's on an abandoned island due to a war. If the remaining ruins could be classified as evidences. But the thing is, the battle looked like it happened a long time ago because when she inspects the ruins earlier and the damages around it, a lot of moss and plants were growing on it.

She collected a lot of dried and fallen twigs from walking and dropped it on the sand. She pulled a canteen made from bamboo and put a string that she found earlier in the ruins. While gulping fresh water from a small stream of river earlier, she pulled out a silver plate attached on a dark blue clothing. A symbol was engraved into it. A whirlpool on the center and dust-lines that points on four different direction.

She washed it and clean her wound with appropriate healing leaves she could find on the forest that could help stop the bleeding and tie it using the band of clothing with metal plate to secure the leaves in her forehead. She felt dizzy and hungry at the same time. She doesn't know if she could catch a school of fish, so she resorted on most common knowledge when in deep forest. Hunting. She met quite a few wild deer and rabbits earlier, but the call of water and her thirst couldn't wait much longer. Few edible berries were wrapped on a large leaf that she found along the river but it's not enough. She continues searching for the deer but to her luck, it simply disappeared like it knows she was hunting them. Now she's stuck with a rabbit in her hand. And it looked so small too. So, she let it go. She sighed and decides that she could survive with berries for today. She'll find something later. So now, making a fire is an absolute need.

Having mercy is maybe a good luck. Because after an hour and half of watching the fire, waiting for the dark to come, continuously throwing berries on her mouth and adding twigs and branches on her little campfire, a silhouette of a boat is coming near on the shore.

Just her luck.

* * *

Concealing oneself shouldn't be too hard to a shinobi especially to a one Minato Namikaze. The _henge_ he put on is good enough to catch some important gossip regarding his son. And he's not liking every single bit of it. Some were hatred. Counts were insults. Few were acceptance. But what he dreaded and didn't like the most were the threats and dangers he learned when a few patrolling shinobis are talking about his son and a mission they took to rescue a certain Kazekage and a jinchūriki to boot from the groups of mercenaries composed of S-rank criminals. The said group were collecting tailed beast for an unknown reason. And the ruckus he made on his graveyard is making a chaos that made the whole village even the civilians alert.

There are so many changes that he couldn't count on with just two hands. For one, the Sandaime is dead. Ichiraku stand was removed and changed it location. Uchiha were wiped out. Good sweet boy Itachi is an S-rank missing-nin. Said missing-nin is hunting his son. The village looked different from before the attack of Kyuubi. Police Force were shut. And a Senjū is now back on the throne as a Hokage. And said Senjū is not just someone but a certain medic blonde who deserted the village a long time ago. And those changes were just only count as one.

Minato is now walking after a good gossip at Ichiraku's stand on the center road down to main gate. The shinobis are now alert and the news of his missing body is making a ruckus upon the village when it was announced earlier. The sealed-boulder that securing his body on a certain cave was destroyed from his _Rasengan_. Luck that no one have seen it. It's like no one really knew that it was his grave site intruded that an alarm went off throughout the village. Tsunade doesn't have a knowledge about it. Maybe it's only between the Sandaime and Jiraiya-sensei who he bets made the sealing security. _'And Kakashi.'_ He add.

He couldn't perform _Hiraishin_ inside Konoha due to scattered and scampering shinobis around. So, the moment he put a step outside the main gate of the village, his adrenaline, fear and excitement about looking for his son came rushing down onto him. He channels his chakra and searched for the sealings he left outside Konoha to perform the _Flying Thunder God_ technique. There's one. But it's far enough so he needed more chakra than he intended. Said _fūin_ is at the head of Shodaime Hokage at the Valley of the End.

Meanwhile, a wide eyed and suspicious Kotetsu is shaking his partner, Izumo, awake to tell him about a certain man that suddenly _shunshin_ in front of the village gate.

* * *

Itachi is having a headache. No, he's having a disaster just right beside him. For the five hours travel he's having with his two companions, they never stop on quarreling. More on, Luffy, having a fit about his hunger and meat and colorful suggestions of stopping to cook Kisame to fill his stomach and Kisame, yelling profanities and few attempts of killing Luffy. Said boy, made quite a ruckus and wailing full of tears and snot earlier because he doesn't know where he is. He talks about a certain village which is not familiar with the both Akatsuki member. When asked to describe the certain village, he only knows it's infront of the ocean and a mountain behind. He doesn't describe anything aside from meat. His hate of bandits. Meat. Friendship with a certain pirate named Shanks. Meat. Fear for his grandfather. Meat. And _Ace._ For some unknown reason, the boy is calling him Ace. Someone his grandfather is going to introduce to him and his brother for all he knows how. And he took it upon himself that the said Ace is him. He couldn't argue more. Because the too little for a seven years old boy is cannot be seized with _genjutsu._ And that interest him.

His chakra is small. No. It's there but he couldn't grasp it. And the boy is like using an armor as a clothing on his skin. Itachi can't see it but he can feel the said armor. And the boy is... _elastic_. Something Itachi couldn't comprehend about. Kisame doesn't look like he's intrigued or knew anything about it. He just wants the said boy gone. Itachi heaved a sigh.

"We would head on Mizu or Kiri. That's the only place to take our chances of meeting your grandfather." Itachi stated quitely.

Luffy stopped for a moment at latching and biting Kisame and looked at Itachi. "Why _Ace_? Ji-chan said I'm going to live with you, and I couldn't come back on the village!" He suddenly jumps at Itachi to latch onto his side causing his loved straw-hat to fall on his back with only a thin string to hang on his neck. "He's gonna hit me with _Fist of Love_! No!" Luffy's ran of crocodile tears is something cannot be ignored, or he'll walk like a rain dawned upon him.

"Brat! Stop crying!" Kisame shouted but it only made the boy cry harder and shouting that he doesn't want to return to his grandfather. "Stop or I'll make you Samehada's dinner!" Still nothing. He just wailed and latched onto Itachi tightly making the stoic Uchiha breath harder.

Itachi looked at his now dampen cloak and hissed remembering a certain baby brother from his childhood. "I hate crybabies." The cry ceased. Just a quite sniffing could be heard. Itachi looked at the boy who's now biting his lower lip and trying to stop his tears. "We're going to find the nearest village at Kirigakure or maybe at _Nami no Kuni_ and drop you there. Those were the place nearest to oceans and most certain to have pirates dropping anchor." The boy cried harder without making a sound and buried his face on his side under his armpit.

"No one's gonna be there." The boy murmured against him.

"What!?" Kisame snarled at the boy.

"I SAID NO ONE'S GONNA BE THERE! JI-CHAN'S ALWAYS AWAY SO I'M ALWAYS ALONE! SHANK'S LEFT A LONG TIME AGO AND HE'S NOT GONNA COME BACK! AND MAKINO IS NOT THERE ALWAYS BECAUSE THERE'S ALWAYS PEOPLE ON HER BAR! AND MAYOR'S ALWAYS ANGRY AT ME! AND OTHER KIDS DOESN'T LIKE ME AND CALL ME MONSTER!"

If there's something that Kisame noticed and will never point at, it's how Itachi unconsciously wrapped his arms around the boy's back. There's something about the boy he couldn't figure about. But one thing is for sure, _Luffy is imprinting on the Uchiha._


End file.
